GIVĒON may be well into his career now, but he says he initially struggled with the speed of his rise to fame. Asked by Billboard to reflect on a challenge he faced in his career, GIVĒON said, “I can start by saying how the ascension was so quick.”
“I was always aware of my ability and talent, but as I started to break through that ceiling, at a certain point it becomes impostor syndrome,” he said. “You have to walk around like, ‘Yeah, I can sell out MSG in presale’; otherwise, you’re going to make yourself smaller than you actually are.”
Today, GIVĒON is more confident in where he stands among R&B artists.
“I don’t actually rank [myself], but there are technical abilities that you could rank, like how well you put on a show, how well you tell a story [and] your uniqueness,” he said. “I will say if we’re going off technical and not just subjectiveness, I feel like I rank among the top.”
GIVĒON added that as he looks ahead in his career, he continues to be driven by his ambition.
“I want to do a full arena tour. That’s one of the main things that drives me, just because the quality of the show could be higher for each and every city,” he said. “And I want a Grammy.”
Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
